The Quakers play for the Ivy title on Tuesday at Princeton

For the first time in program history, Penn women’s
basketball is postseason-bound
for the second consecutive year.

It’s just the next step in this program’s
resurgence over the past few years,
powered by this year’s crop of seniors.

“It’s very chilling now, for me personally, to try
to get them to come here
off a team that won two games,” coach Mike McLaughlin said.

“To have that feeling tonight now that they’re
going to play for an Ivy League
championship, I can’t put it into words. It’s all about what they did, to buy in, to create the
culture they helped to create.”

On Senior Night, the Quakers shined the brightest,
demonstrating exactly what
this team has become as Penn used a dominant second
half to take down Cornell, 50-43.

The game began with a ceremony honoring the four
seniors for Penn (21-6, 11-2 Ivy). Guards
Alyssa Baron and Meghan McCullough, forward Kristen Kody and center Courtney Wilson walked out to
center court with their parents to the cheers
of a decently sized Palestra crowd.

“We’ve had a great four years here,” McCullough
said. “Getting a sweep on
our last Ivy weekend here was a great feeling with tons of friends and family around.”

After honoring their seniors, the Quakers came out
rather flat in the first half
missing on a good number of outside shots. Their defense kept them in it, leading to a
rather back and forth affair until Cornell (14-14,
6-8) established a lead late in the half.

“We all knew that for the seniors that this was
the last time we were playing
on this court,” Wilson said. “So we addressed that and said that we had to come out in the
second half and play hard right from the start
of the second half.”

And to say the team played hard in the second half
might be an understatement.
The Red and Blue came out rather slow to start the half, as Cornell maintained its
lead through the first seven minutes.

But at the 12:41 mark, a layup by freshman guard
Melanie Lockett tied the
game at 33-33. Seconds later, it was followed by a fast break layup by junior guard Renee Busch as the
Quakers began an 18-2 run that would ruin
any hopes for Cornell to win this game.

For the Quakers, it was the defense during that
stretch that proved most important.
Penn held the Big Red to a mere 17.6 percent shooting in the second half, and a paltry 25.8 percent
on the game.

“We’ve always taken pride in our defense this
season and that always turns
into offense,” McCullough said “And that showed this game.”

It was another disappointing game for Baron, who
struggled shooting from the
field for the second consecutive night, but once again got it done in other ways. Baron led
the team in rebounds (8), assists (5) and steals
(3), despite putting up just five points.

With the pair of wins this weekend, the Quakers
set a number of important
program records. This season is just the second 20-win season in program history and just the
fourth 10-win Ivy season.

All of this, especially the chance to play for an
Ivy League title on Tuesday
against Princeton, seemed incredibly unlikely just four years ago when these seniors first
stepped onto the Palestra floor.

“There’s no better place to be right now. Four
years ago, that was our goal,
to get a banner,” Wilson said.